one in a million
by Kuroshi44
Summary: Reapers check souls before collection in case they benefit humanity. the souls almost never do. Almost. T to be safe


**AN: this incorporates things from manga and anime and the dates are from the anime. This is my first completed fan fic so if you have constructive criticism for improvement or think future ones should be similar please review and tell me!**

 **29/04/16; minor fixes of grammar and spelling, no other changes.**

The day before the manor burned Ciel saw a strange man in a suit walking around the mansion. He wore strange glasses and carried a strange object but Ciel ignored him, father was always working with strange people. It was not something his ten year old brain would dwell on, he was more interested in cake.

If Ciel had paid attention he might have noticed that everyone ignored the man in this same method, almost as if he wasn't there.

And perhaps he wasn't.

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His heart beat just that little bit faster than his feat pounded on the floor as he tore down the halls looking for something safe. His home was unrecognisable in haze of smoke and heat and tinged red by the hungry flames. He could feel the smoke curling in his lungs, triggering an itch he had not felt in some months.

But that wasn't what mattered; he needed to find his parents. Ciel forced the air out of his constricting lungs in a desperate plea for an answer.

'Mother! Father! Where are you?'

The final call was the last straw, the next desperate draw brought more smoke than air and the resulting coughing fit drove him to his knees. Gasping desperately he tried to expel the smoke while simultaneously drying to get oxygen. Even if he wasn't asthmatic this smoke would have posed a problem for his tiny ten year old lungs. Trying to fight his lungs he could not draw breath, even with air free from smoke he would still be suffocated by his own body.

He was dead either way; even if one was missing the other would get him.

Slowly he collapsed, ending up on the floor as the strength to hold up his body faded. Still desperately trying to breathe the world faded to black and he lost his grip on the world.

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Ciel saw what followed in the hazy quality of dream.

The strange man stood above the small figure lying on the floor. He flipped at fast pace through the book in his hands with a stamp clamped between his teeth, leaning against the strange contraption he had been holding earlier.

'Ah, here we are.' The man said as he removed the stamp from between his teeth while holding his place in the book.

'Ciel Phantomhive. Born December 14 1875, died December 14 1885, isn't that ironic, you're dying on your birthday. Child of Vincent and Rachael Phantomhive who have already been collected, all I have left to do is collect you and I am off for the night.'

Even in his hazy state Ciel felt a rush of anger at his dismissal, at the suggestion that his family may have already been dead. He was a Phantomhive, his parent's where Phantomhives, they did not go down easy. Still the anger surprised him; he could not remember having felt this before.

The man paused just before he stamped the page.

'What the hell is this? Can't be right, must be a clerical error.'

He looked again as the small figure lying on the ground; Ciel realized with a start that it was him.

'Just wait here while I figure this out, well it's not as if you can leave.'

The man walk down the hall leaving Ceil all alone, he did not have long to wait before he returned trailed by another man. This new person also had glasses and a strange device next to him.

'That's what I'm telling you William; it doesn't make sense. I have never seen the like in my 300 years of reaping.'

The man considered Ciel where he lay on the ground as he adjusted his glasses with one end of another strange object.

'So this is the child in question?'

'Yes, this is Ciel Phantomhive slated to die on his tenth birthday. What the hell am I meant to do with the book looking like this?'

'At the risk of overtime you have to do what it says, collection unable to be completed.'

'But what the hell does that mean? The kid's already dead!'

'Then we just have to fix it.'

'That's what I am saying, how?'

'Leave it to me.'

The new man, William the other had called him, leant down to the small body.

'I don't know how and I don't know why but today you get to escape death, just don't you dare give me overtime or will make you regret this peace of good luck.

'This will give you a three year respite from asthma; you really are a lucky child.'

Ciel was aware of the strange object flying towards him, actual him not the thing lying on the ground, and then al was black again.

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Ciel woke with a start, lying on the ground surrounded by smoke and haze, he had a vague memory of someone being there but it was twittered and snarled with the fog of dreams of another time. He did not have time to worry about that, or the strange lightness of his chest that he could never remember having felt before. He had to find his parents.

Franticly he took off down the halls, his heart beating just slightly faster that his feet pounded the corridor, fear for his parents pushing all thoughts of the anomalies out of his head.

'Mother! Father! Please!'

 **End**


End file.
